This invention relates to a detector for identifying the presence of high conductivity or permittivity conditions in electrically insulating materials and related method. A requirement for ensuring worker safety when performing live work (LW) with polymer insulators (also called composite or non-ceramic insulators (NCI)), is to confirm the short-term (i.e. for the duration of the work) electrical and mechanical integrity of both the installed and the replacement polymer units. Currently there are no generally accepted and easily applied procedures to accomplish this. Consequently some utilities have opted not to use polymer insulators. In addition, a number of utilities that do use polymer insulators avoid live work on structures on which these insulators have been installed.
Although both the electrical and mechanical integrity of the insulator are a concern, often work practices can be implemented to address the mechanical concerns. The focus therefore of this application is to provide a simple detector to assess the electrical integrity of a polymer insulator and that can also be used for a wide range of other insulating components.
The detector disclosed in this application has the capacity to identify conductive, semi-conductive or high permittivity conditions, both internal and external without likely physical contact with internal conductive defects. The detector is able to identify conductive, semi-conductive and high permittivity internal conditions which occur in service—and are small in dimension electrically.
The detector is portable, lightweight, able to be used on energized installed insulators, and provides a simple “Go/No Go” output. As noted above, the detector is not only be applicable to polymer insulators, but also to other insulating components such as fiberglass hot sticks, guy strain insulators, fiberglass cross-arms, composite poles, and the like. Thus, the technology incorporated in the detector does not necessarily need to be utilized to evaluate components that fill an electrical function—rather it is applicable to any component which is manufactured from a material having insulating properties and the internal or external condition being sought is conductive, semi-conductive or has a high permittivity.